Transferred amid spat, D Roopa takes charge as MD of K’taka Handicrafts Development Corpn

Bengaluru: Transferred amid her public spat with another senior IPS officer over a Bengaluru city project D Roopa has said she would welcome her shunting if it paves the way for action on the corrupt.

Roopa took charge as the Managing Director of the Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation on Friday. Her transfer from the post of Home Secretary (Prisons, Crime and Auxiliary Services) is seen as a fallout of the bureaucratic squabble over the Rs 619 crore Bengaluru Safe City Project with another IPS officer involved in the controversy, Hemant Nimbalkar, who has also been transferred as IGP, Internal Security Division.

Roopa, an IGP rank official, in a series of tweets, has expressed her displeasure about the transfer stating that “whistleblowing and firm action is rift with risks.”

“Transferred today as MD, Handicrafts Emporium. My transfer is like putting me on an equal footing with other IPS officer Nimbalkar chargesheeted by CBI & CBI has recommended for disciplinary action of major Penalty against him in last December, one year ago, which is not yet done,” she said in a tweet last night after the transfer.

“I am joining the new post tomorrow as posts don’t matter to me. But what matters is, public interest must be upheld and the corrupt must be punished. If my shift paves the way for action on the corrupt, I welcome it,” she said in another tweet.

Nimbalkar was the additional commissioner (administration) in Bengaluru. In response to a tweet that transfers are part and parcel of the service, Roopa said, “Yes. I”ve always held that. Transfers are part of government job. I’ve been transferred more than double the times than the number of years of my career.”

“Whistleblowing and firm action is rift with risks, and I know that. I continue to do my job uncompromisingly, this post or that post, doesn’t matter.”

After taking over her new role today, she said it’s a stereotype that cops do not or will not like to head the handicrafts corporation.

“As a Kannadiga IPS officer, I have great pride in our native handicrafts of the state. I can relate and interact with artisans just like one of their own. As a woman I’m interested in aesthetics,” she tweeted.

Roopa and Nimbalkar had clashed over the Rs 619 crore Bengaluru Safe City project under the Nirbhaya scheme.

Nimbalkar, who is also Chairman of Nirbhaya Tender Inviting Committee and tender scrutiny Committee, had alleged someone had impersonated the home secretary and tried to gain access to classified information, which according to him tantamounted to “illegal interference.”

In response, Roopa said she accessed the tender documents and found serious irregularities in them. Calling it a “whistle-blowing” act, Roopa said the Bharat Electronics Ltd had complained to the Prime Minister’s Office that the tender favoured a particular vendor. Subsequently, the government ordered the Bengaluru Police Commissioner Kamal Pant to probe the “illegal interference” in the process.